The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets)

I think the recent electric scooter boom and subsequent pushback by communities shows that: - There is (IMHO huge ) pent-up demand for last-mile style electric transportation: scooters, bicycles, etc. - The electric drive technology is starting to reach a point where it can support a whole new space of designs that make this sort of transportation appealing to a wide variety of users (i.e. not just fit young adventurous people; the elderly, young children, etc.) - Sadly, infrastructure, laws, and social norms move way too slowly and are the limiting factor for what could be a major quality-of-life improvement for many many people. Note that "EV's that are half the width of a normal car lane ... probably less than $10k." is a pretty good description for the electric cargo bikes that are already starting to emerge. I would love to see cities and towns adapt faster to accommodate things like this: The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets) [VIDEO] How to Transport Kids by eBike [LINK] This American Mayor is Creating the Ultimate Biking City [LINK]

I didn't watch the whole thing, but did she mention electric bikes? IMO, Electric cars, or cars in general, are just fine. We just did a family road-trip around Denmark with our Ioniq 5 and it's absolutely perfect for that. The thing is, we should be renting them when we need them, and use bikes more the rest of the time. Electric bikes are quickly becoming a viable alternative to cars in many bike-friendly cities, and we're seeing an explosion in the choices of electric cargo bikes. Not Just Bikes has an excellent new video on this: [VIDEO] I rode my electric bike to work today in fact. Instead of our EV, ironically. But our family uses only one car at least. We don't necessarily need simpler cars, we need better electric bikes. Or electric motorbikes/scooters. And better public transportation. Something like this would be a nice option for some usecases: [LINK] GetAround is making renting cars more viable too. We do actually have a second car now, but I've been renting the old one out until we're ready to sell it and until we're sure we can handle two kids in kindergarten without it. It's been way more popular than I anticipated.

I suggest you watch this video[1] by the awesome channel "Not Just Bikes". Bakfiets are a dutch cargo bike you can literally use for 99% of all your errands. People in a city do not need personal cars. And even Cargo bikes are only useful for 10-20% of occasions, depending on if you have big shopping tours or kids. For the 1 or 2 occasions a year where a car is needed, car sharing is the way to go. [1]: [VIDEO]

> a two-wheeled cargo bikes are much easier to cycle than three-wheeled cargo bikes. See video "The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets)" * [VIDEO] * [LINK]

The process is a feedback loop though. People drive because everything is so spread out. The corner stores die because people don't walk past anymore. Rinse and repeat. Electric cargo bikes are the last bastion of hope here. [VIDEO]

I had my mind blown about Dutch-style cargo ebikes, bakfietsen . The cool thing is that you can use the bikes to haul cargo, or put three kids in the front in special harnesses when you need to: [VIDEO]

> - might be impossible depending on work or children; For the latter, perhaps see "The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets)": * [VIDEO] > - weather might make the ride unpleasant; I live in Toronto, Canada, and in the Before Times I cycled everday between ~April and December, rain or shine. The simplest solution is to just always have bad weather gear: it's like and doesn't take up much volume. Having it in a pannier means you always have it and don't have to think about it. The simplest solution for rain is a poncho, though I went with jackets and rain pants. I found the threat of rain is more of an obstacle that actual rain. If your commute is <40 minutes, odds are pretty good it won't actually rain during your ride. It's the possibility of it that tends discourage people, in which case some gear works to counter it. That said, if you ride >80% of the time when the weather isn't too bad that's still a good improvement over not riding at all.

> Or you might need to carry kids. Or carry shopping/parcels [VIDEO] There is a huge misunderstanding in what bikes are trying to achieve. No sane one is suggesting you use a bike for a 50 mile work commute. The criticism is against giant SUVs and pickup trucks for in-city travel. You dont need to burn 2 gallons of fuel to carry a gallon of milk and dozen eggs from 2 miles away. A cargo bike like in the video above is sufficient. Most cars have 1 passenger in them currently. How do I know that? Because HoV lanes are always empty.

> I think the young, healthy people who live in moderate climates with good weather, short commutes, and little need to haul anything The old dutch people riding their bakfietsen around in the snow show this is much more a cultural thing than a hard fact of weather and human nature - and culture can change as the need arises. [VIDEO] As far as short commutes - that's as much a factor of public policy as are trains and other forms of public transport.

> How many kids do you have? Jason Slaughter of Not Just Bikes has two: * [VIDEO] See also: > Heather Moore-Farley was pregnant with her third child when the family’s car died on route home from vacation. Her husband’s office was walkable from home, as was a Zipcar share. So to help save both money and the environment, the family decided to see how long they could go without a car. Two days before they welcomed their youngest child, “we ordered a cargo bike and just kept going,” said Moore-Farley, who lives in Oakland. That was 10 years ago. They still haven’t replaced the family car. * [LINK] > Traipsing 3 kids around to school, daycare, and extracurricular activities wouldn’t be easy. How would they grocery shop to fill all those mouths? What about family vacations, weekend trips away, or heading out to the movies – could they survive? * [LINK] > Biking with kids is all the rage in Portland these days, but biking with six kids between the ages of 2 and 11? That’s something I never would have thought possible before I met southeast Portland resident Emily Finch. * [LINK]

> A bicycle is trash (fun to ride, not that useful). Entirely dependent on the infrastructure: [LINK] > What are you going to carry on your bike? Five bags? Seems like a lot of groceries to buy at a time, but if you really want to: [VIDEO] > I don’t want to go 5 miles away, I want to go 200. You cover 200 miles every day? [LINK] Regardless, you can own a car for those longer journeys just fine and still make most trips by bicycle. > With bikes and walking, your world is small. Yeah, that's why public transport is important too. Cars as well, although deprioritized. > Electric cars powered by renewable energy get rid of most of the negative externalities. They get rid of some of the noise and almost all of the harmful exhaust. That's about it. They're still 2 ton+ massive steel cages that are incredibly dangerous to everyone else, take up a ridiculous amount of space, and require extremely expensive infrastructure. As for the rest, sure, I'm not really criticising your particular choices, it sounds like you live in a rural area where a car is necessary anyway. However, there's no way for everybody to be able to live like you do. There are just too many people. We need to live with long-term sustainability in mind.

- Ebikes let you cover great distances with little effort. - You can have someone ride on the backseat or in the cargo space of a cargo bike. [1] - You'd be hard pressed to come up with a shopping load that won't fit on a cargo bike. [1] Then there's the cost vs a car [2], which will likely make up for any inconvenience. Of course, you do need at least decent bike infrastructure for this to be realistic. [1]: [VIDEO] [2]: [VIDEO]

Wouldn't it be nice if the only other car traffic on the road was there because of use cases similarly niche to yours? Public transportation is great at eliminating the need for using a car for completely overkill trips like commuting and basic shopping. Having said that, given good cycling infrastructure, chances are you could either bring your kids along on a cargo bike [1] or they could just ride there themselves [2]. [1]: [VIDEO] [2]: [LINK]

> Don't people bike because they want to get fit? In my city people bike because they want to get from A to B. E-bikes are great for that! They enable reasonable fast biking without breaking into sweat (good for commuting) and in hilly areas. First they enabled senior citizens to bike fast and longer. Then came the mountain e-bikes and made it cool. Than the city hipsters. Then family mum and dad zipping their children around: [VIDEO] > If not, get a proper motorbike. Motorbikes are loud and heavy and more expensive. You need a helmet and have to use the road instead of bike lanes. You need a driving license.

Does anyone have experience on two- versus three-wheeled cargo bikes? When he made a video on the topic, Jason Slaughter of Not Just Bikes preferred two wheels with the big box upfront ( bakfiets ): * [VIDEO] * [LINK]

Calling everything but cars exclusionary is mildly hilarious. First of all, you're simply forgetting about public transport. That's needed too and pretty much covers all your concerns. However... 1. The disabled? How many of those do you think are disabled in just the right ways to still be able to drive? You know "disabled" doesn't just mean "missing a limb", right? So uh, if the only option is to drive and someone's disabled and therefore can't drive, what do they... do? Anyhow: [1] 2. Kids? How many kids do you see driving cars around? You know 10+ year olds can just... bike on their own, right? Like, to school, etc.? [2] [3] [4] Below that age, just bike them around? [5] ;) > Forcing You know nobody's forcing you to do anything, right? Like, you can still own and use your car, there are some very valid use cases best served by them. For example, around half of the Dutch own a car. They just don't use them as much for really dumb purposes, like driving 5km to a grocery store, because the nearest one is within walking or cycling distance. The problem is that driving has been so heavily subsidized, that we've come to take it for granted and are now truly shocked when asked to pay more to even somewhat offset the real costs. And I'm afraid there's no viable path forward that doesn't involve eventually paying in full. > Forcing people to bike and walk everywhere sounds a lot better if you're in a moderate climate where bad weather means you need to pack a light jacket and wait